


Stickball Court

by rabeimwald



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: POV Andrew Minyard, also i write all german in real german because I'm not a coward, also the way that he talks about his trauma is a little Different, because i dont know how to do it except for how i do it, but my commentary is absolutely golden listen, but this is canon compliant enough for you to be warned now, i write trigger warnings at the beginnings of chapters, like thats really it I'm just writing aftg but with andrew, so have fun with that, the beginning of this is straight from the books, with translations of course
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:53:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26656930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabeimwald/pseuds/rabeimwald
Summary: Andrew started for the parking lane without comment. The afternoon was muggy and terribly humid, and for less than a second he almost thought he’d regret the all-black ensemble he’d persistently worn. He had to wear something that would cover the armbands, and something that Aaron would also have identical to him. Sometimes you get a last-minute haircut and shuffle through your twin brother’s dresser to find things that look enough like yours to fool the new kid. Sometimes your brother sighs and does what he’s told, muttering something about how he “better not have plans to kill the new kid before the season even starts.” Sometimes that happened.orFoxhole Court in Minyard's point of view, because I thought it would be pretty and I generally felt like it
Comments: 10
Kudos: 49





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> No warnings. Had to put my back into writing this much sass. Enjoy.

If this new kid asked later why he’d come along, he’d simply say it was because Wymack was letting him buy as many concessions as he wanted with the team’s credit card. It had nothing to do with the biting curiosity of who the hell Kevin had decided was some kind of star player. It also had nothing to do with Kevin asking him to come. 

And if absolutely anyone asked why he’d broken into the school’s little lounge afterward when he was told to wait in the car, Andrew would say it was simply to throw away a wrapper. Not because he’d gotten bored of waiting his turn. 

Either way, it’d paid off. He heard Wymack yelling, and picked up the closest thing he could find: an exy stick, how fitting. A moment later some raggedy kid came skidding through the door in front of him, and he swung without thinking. Andrew tried not to think about how crazed he looked, staring down at this dude with the manic smile he couldn’t legally fight off. 

The mop of black hair on his knees was finally starting to regain his bearing when Wymack came through the door as well. The man had taken one look at the scene before pinching the bridge of his nose in a very Wymack way. 

“God damn it, Minyard, this is why we can’t have nice things.” 

Andrew beamed up at him, tearing his eyes from the one on the floor. His brain was going a mile a minute. This was the golden boy? Unfortunate. “Oh, Coach,” his voice was dripping in something he couldn’t quite remember how to place, “if he was nice, he wouldn’t be of any use to us, would he?” 

The Wymack-isms did not halt as he sighed. “He’s no use to us if you break him.” 

Break? Oh, please. If that had broken him, he wasn’t worth fixing. “You’d rather I let him go? Put a bandaid on him and he’ll be good as new.” 

He hadn’t thought he’d even hit the kid that hard, but then again he really hadn’t checked his own strength in a while. Andrew looked back at the boy on the floor, who still seemed to be blinking stars out of his eyes. Whoops. Oh well. It would have happened sooner or later. He was so fast. Like some kind of squirrel. Someone ought to give him an Adderall or two. 

That was terrible humour that he wasn’t going to let himself laugh at no matter the circumstances.  
The smile had already formed without him realising it, however, so he put it to better use. Tapped two fingers to his temple in his sort of mock-salute. “Better luck next time.” 

“Fuck you,” the kid spat out, and looked up at him. There was something vicious in them, and Andrew wasn’t having any of it. “Who’s racket did you steal?” 

Yeah. None of it. “Borrow.” Andrew tossed it at him. “Here you go.” 

Another man muscled his way past Wymack and helped the kid up by his elbow. “Neil, Jesus, are you alright?” Neil. He had a name. 

“Andrew’s a bit raw on manners.” Wymack stepped in front of Andrew, probably in some stunt to protect this Neil from him. If Andrew was going to do anything else, he would have already. Maybe one day his coach would learn that. 

He rolled his eyes, throwing his hands up in a sarcastic shrug. Went around their little circle to find Kevin. Day had hopped himself onto the entertainment center, pushing the TV off to the side to make more room for his neat little stacks of files. It was taking self-restraint to not want to knock them all off. He wasn’t a cat. 

Wymack was banishing this other man- the highschool coach, probably, now that he’d thought about it. Neil called him Hernandez- as Andrew got himself situated into  
some kind of dramatic lean on the wall next to Kevin. 

“I already gave you my answer. I won’t sign with you.” Wow, now that was dramatic. They’d flown all the way out to Fuck-Knows, Arizona for this kid and he was refusing to join the team. Andrew could see himself in him. Insert the dramatic tear wipe here. 

“If I paid to fly three people out here to see you the least you could do is give me five minutes, don’t you think?” Five seemed like too much. Andrew wasn’t close enough to keep him from running again. Be smarter, Coach. 

Neil’s voice came out panicked, which was almost unnerving. Kid has issues. “You didn’t bring him.” Ooo, dramatic gasp. Someone’s a Day stan. 

“Is that a problem?” Wymack sounded confused, which Andrew supposed was relevant. He’d sounded more scared than excited. 

There was a long pause. “I’m not good enough to play on the same court as the champion.” Andrew was going to throw up. 

Kevin decided opening his mouth was a good idea, which was never true. “True, but irrelevant.” 

They stared at each other for a concerningly long amount of time. Andrew was about to make a loud noise just to see who would jump first when Neil finally spoke up. 

“What are you doing here?” 

Why wouldn’t he be here? “Why were you leaving?” Kevin sometimes asked the right questions. 

“I asked you first.” Fuck this dude for being snarky. It was funny and Andrew wasn’t going to laugh at it. He was not. 

“Coach already answered that question.” Kevin was getting impatient, which was always entertaining. “We are waiting for you to sign the contract. Stop wasting our time.” No, no, keep at it. This was very funny. Kevin, stop ruining the fun. 

“No.” And they were back to this. “There are a thousand strikers who’d jump at a chance to play with you. Why don’t you bother them?” He was right, technically. Andrew had watched the game, albeit not that closely. The kid was fast, but that was really it. Kevin’s insistence hadn’t made much sense. 

“We saw their files,” Wymack spoke up. He was right. They’d looked through so many files. It had exhausted Andrew, and he hadn’t even helped them. The exhaustion had come from hearing them yell about stats for that long. “We chose you.” Kevin had chosen Neil, and then talked everyone else into it, actually. 

“I won’t play with Kevin.” Okay, everyone gets it, you’re a stan. Whatever. Andrew was five seconds from leaving. 

"You will.” Kevin acted like he could actually make Neil do it, which was honestly kind of funny, considering Kevin couldn’t even get Nicky to stop buying Aaron those wafer cookies he stress eats. 

“Maybe you haven’t noticed, but we’re not leaving here until you say yes.” Fucking damn it, Coach. “Kevin says we have to have you, and he’s right.” 

“We should have thrown away your coach’s letter the second we opened it.” Classic Kevin-ism, putting people down before they were even standing. “Your file is deplorable, and I don’t want someone with your inexperience on our court. It goes against everything we’re trying to do with the Foxes this year. Fortunately for you, your coach knew better than to send us your statistics. He sent us a tape so we could see you in action instead. You play like you have everything to lose.” 

Unfortunately, Kevin was absolutely correct. The circumstance wasn’t the unfortunate part- just the fact that Andrew had to admit that Kevin was right more than once today. Neil had only been playing for a year. He was small, too, especially for a striker. Only had a few inches on Andrew, which wasn’t normally the case for jocks. Most of the team had over half a foot on him. 

Neil muttered something that Andrew didn’t catch that far away from him. 

“That’s the only kind of striker worth playing with.” Oh, get a room already. 

“It actually works in our favour that we’re all the way out here,” Wymack decided to speak up. Maybe sensing that thickening tension the room had been growing. “No one outside of our team and school board even knows we’re here. We don’t want your face all over the news this summer. We’ve got too much to deal with this summer and don’t want to drag you into the mess until you’re safe and settled on campus. There’s a confidentiality clause in your contract, says you can’t tell anyone you’re ours until the season starts in August.” 

Andrew doubted the poor sack of bones had anyone to tell anyways. 

Neil watched Kevin. “It’s not a good idea.” One could say that again. 

“Your opinion has been duly noted and dismissed,” Wymack sighed. “Anything else, or are you going to start signing stuff?” 

There was a long pause. Neil looked so pathetic, looking between Kevin and the contract. Like he’d never been encouraged to take an opportunity before. He’d fit right in with the Foxes. 

“Well?” Wymack was losing patience. It was surprising that he still had so much of it left, really. Janie Smalls was theon=paper reason that the man hadn’t already walked out of there, but Andrew knew Wymack enough to know that he was sold on this one as much as he’d been sold on the Monsters. Neil wasn’t allowed to turn this down without Wymack putting up a hell of a fight. 

“I’ll have to talk to my mother.” Something in Andrew was a little surprised that he even had parents, but he told that something to fuck off. While he was free to make assumptions about the new guy, he wasn’t allowed to let himself project. It’s called personal restraint. 

“What for? You’re legal, aren’t you? Your file says you’re nineteen.” Andrew hated the word legal, but he kept his face as blankly manic as it always was. 

“I still need to ask.” Aw, a mommy’s boy. How nice. 

“She’ll be happy for you.” Wymack was edging insensitive territory. 

“Maybe.” Neil’s voice sounded wrong, which was hilariously unfunny. “I’ll talk to her tonight.” 

“We can give you a lift home.” Hoping this kid even had a house. Andrew couldn’t even look at him anymore. 

“I’m fine.” He really seemed to like that phrase. 

Wymack turned to Andrew and Kevin. “Go wait in the car.” 

Oh. Things were about to get personal. Wymack was about to go into one of his horrible speeches about his cause, about his need to be some kind of second chance or whatever. Andrew had heard it one time too many. He waited for Kevin to gather his files and went for the door. The candy wrapper made a crackling noise in his hoodie  
pocket as he walked. 

They stalked into the car in silence, because Kevin had nothing to say and Andrew didn’t feel like teasing him for it. The SUV had been invaded by hot, stale air while he’d been gone, and he chose not to let it affect him. To hell with Arizona and its dry heat. He was counting down the seconds until they were back in South Carolina, even if that meant counting the seconds until he was on a plane again. Absolutely unpleasant. 

After a while of spacing out, Andrew watched Neil come out of the building. He was already walking so fast, it was impossible not to want to get one last word in. Andrew opened the door to the SUV to holler at him, all wink and smile. “Too good to play with us, too good to ride with us?” 

Neil flicked him a cool look and started into a jog. Andrew watched as he got faster, and by the time he’d hit the edge of the parking lot he was in a full-out run. Absolute fucking squirrel, that was for sure.


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings: medication mention, smoking, alcohol, mentions of things that go down in foster care (not like anything bad but man iykyk) 
> 
> Have fun I guess

Andrew regretted what him-from-a-few-hours-ago thought would be a fun time. He’d been standing there leaning against the wall for ten minutes, which was about nine minutes more than his attention span was enjoying. His last round had worn off on his way here, and he was pretending not to care. He’d told Aaron he’d be back on when they got to the stadium, and he intended to keep his word. 

Neil was looking just as much like a raccoon as he had in Millport. Andrew had the horrific thought that he might always look like that. He walked over with that same duffel bag he’d been carrying around back there, too. 

Sometimes Andrew disliked being right, and this was one of those times. Neil had familial issues of some sort. Andrew was almost curious, but not enough yet to admit to it. 

“Neil.” He nodded a hello, pointing in an appropriate direction. “Baggage claim.” Attempt at subtlety complete. 

“Just this.” Neil tapped the strap of the duffel bag. 

Hm. 

Andrew started for the exit without comment. The afternoon was muggy and terribly humid, and for less than a second he almost thought he’d regret the all-black ensemble he’d persistently worn. He had to wear something that would cover the armbands, and something that Aaron would also have identical to him. Sometimes you get a last-minute haircut and shuffle through your twin brother’s dresser to find things that look enough like yours to fool the new kid. Sometimes your brother sighs and does what he’s told, muttering something about how he “better not have plans to kill the new kid before the season even starts.” Sometimes that happened. 

There was a crowd waiting for the crosswalk to change in their favour out front, but Andrew neglected to notice. If he was afraid of getting hit, he’d show it. 

A taxi screeched to a halt on his right as he fumbled a cigarette into his mouth. Andrew heard Neil apologize behind him. It’s always something new with this kid. He elected to ignore it in favour of unlocking the car, and also elected to ignore the surprised noises Neil thought he was suppressing.

“Bag in the trunk.” 

Andrew genuinely couldn’t watch him put the lonely little carry-on into the car. It was reminding him too much of years of carrying around a single black garbage bag with everything he owned in it. Dropping it next to him in the back seat of his caseworker’s car. An empty promise that maybe this time would be different. There were many words that Andrew didn’t like, but he’d reclaimed promises. Because the state of California was not allowed to have any hand in his post-system life. 

He was halfway through his cigarette before he’d managed to pull himself out of his thoughts. It accidentally got much easier to retreat back there, when his head wasn’t swimming. Neil was watching him from the passenger seat, and Andrew had half of the audacity to want to tell him he wasn’t allowed to sit up front. He got himself pretty close to a smile as he turned the key in the engine. 

“Neil Josten,” Andrew said out loud, testing his own waters. “Here for the summer, yeah?” 

“Yes.” 

Andrew turned the air conditioner all the way up and put the car in reverse. He decided that needless small talk was going to have to go down. “That makes five of us, but word is you’re supposed to stay with Coach.” 

Neil was silent for a moment. “Kevin stays on campus?” 

At it again with this obsession with Day. Something really had to be up with this guy. “Wherever the court is, Kevin is. He can’t exist without it.” His tone was mocking, as it always was when it pertained to Kevin and his exy addiction. 

“Didn’t think it was the court Kevin was staying for.” The fuck does that even mean? Kevin didn’t care about anything but playing exy and being a straight-nosed prick. Everything was about the court. He pulled out the money for the parking toll and stepped on it as soon as the bar was lifted. Someone laid on their horn as he cut them off, and Neil discreetly tightened his seat belt. 

Andrew flicked him a sideways glance. Time to play his puppet part. “I hear you didn’t hit it off with Kevin last month.” He was Aaron right now. Aaron would have heard this. Aaron had heard this, actually, because Kevin wouldn’t shut up about how ridiculous it was that his new starting striker was weary about playing with him. Aaron had joked that maybe he’d just seen through Kevin’s facade and noticed how much of an asshole he really was. 

“No one warned me he was going to be there.” Neil was watching the city rush by outside the window. “Maybe you’ll forgive me for not reacting well.” 

Andrew chose to not think too hard about that just yet. Filed away. “Maybe I won’t. I don’t believe in forgiveness, and it wasn’t me you offended. That was the second time a recruit has told him to fuck off.” The first was Andrew himself. “If it was possible to dent that arrogance of his, his pride would have shreds through it. Instead he’s losing his faith in the intelligence of high school athletes.” 

“I’m sure Andrew had his reasons for refusing, same as me.” Who lent this one a handful of brain cells? It wasn’t looking very good on him. 

“You said you weren’t good enough, but here you are anyway. You think a summer of practices will make that much of a difference?” It was almost laughable, really. 

“No.” At least he wasn’t stupid. “It was just too hard to say no.” 

Ah, yes. The saint’s message from fucking above, Wymack’s little savior speech. It was a complex, really. “Coach always knows what to say, hm? It makes it harder on the rest of us, though. Not even Millport should have taken a chance on you.” Andrew, subtlety poking the bear with the stick? Never! 

Neil shrugged. “Millport’s too small to care about experience. I had nothing to lose by trying out and they had nothing to gain by refusing me. It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time, I suppose.” 

Interesting. Right place, right time. Sounded like bullshit, but he didn’t have enough to call him out on it. “Do you believe in fate?” It was a joke, of course, and he let it show in his voice. 

“No. Do you?” 

Oh, hilarious. Andrew didn’t believe in coincidence. Only circumstance. And the circumstance was that the universe hated him in every aspect. He chose to ignore the question for a later date. “Luck, then.” 

“Only the bad kind.” Oh. Hm. That was. That was a mouthful. Too much to unpack in one car ride. 

“We’re flattered by your high opinions of us, of course,” Andrew muttered. He merged into another lane of traffic without even checking his surroundings, and angry horns blared behind him in response. He could almost laugh. 

“It’s too nice of a car to wreck.” Please. There wasn’t a single thing Andrew owned that he wasn’t willing to break just to prove he didn’t actually care about it. He wasn’t allowed to have attachments, because that meant he’d lose them. Andrew stopped thinking. 

“Don’t be so afraid to die.” He kept his eyes on the road, gliding down the highway until he reached the right exit ramp. He couldn’t help himself. “If you are, you have no place on our court.” 

“We’re talking about a sport, not a death match,” was Neil’s wonderful retort. 

With Day on your court? “Same difference. You’re playing on a Class 1 team with Kevin Day on your line. People are always willing to bleed for him. You’ve seen the news, I assume.” 

“I’ve seen it.” 

Andrew flicked his fingers, wordlessly saying, exactly. 

Kevin Fucking Day. Such a sorry sack of bones. His mother invents exy with some Japanese folk on a year abroad in Fukui, and now some thirty years later he has to pay the price. Because nothing ever comes without a price. Exy’s price was the yakuza. 

Him and his adoptive brother Riko Moriyama had grown up together as the faces of exy. When Kaleigh Day had passed, Tetsuji Moriyama- whom Kevin referred to almost always as Lord, and who coached the esteemed Edgar Allen Ravens- took him in as Riko’s uncle. They were raised on Edgar Allen’s court with a camera in their faces, and played like professionals before puberty. 

The part most didn’t know about was that the Moriyamas were an entire Japanese mafia family, that used exy games as their business front. Every one of the Moriyamas were assholes that Andrew would not hesitate to put a knife through given the chance. 

Really, it was very unfortunate that Kevin was such an asshole. His story was a heartthrob. The Ravens didn’t know how to treat their people as more than pawns in their goddamn exy game. 

It was why Kevin was here. And it was why Andrew was protecting him. Maybe one day Kevin will learn how to feel a real emotion that he didn’t worry would kill him. It hadn’t happened yet, though. 

Andrew was almost curious as to what last year had looked like to the outside eye. People loved to make their own assumptions and theories as to why Kevin had come out to South Carolina. Andrew’d had his own. Ultimately Kevin was with them because Wymack didn’t physically know how to turn away someone that needed help. It was his coach’s fatal flaw. That little number two tattoo was going to kill all of them. 

Wymack’s apartment complex was only twenty minutes from the airport, and Kevin, Nicky, and Aaron were all waiting on them on the curb out front. The rest of the parking lot remained empty. Andrew pulled over in front of his bunch and turned the car off, chucking the key ring into the backseat. The locks popped as he pulled himself out of the car, and he decided waiting for Neil was too much work. He took up post next to Kevin, with Aaron on the other side. He couldn’t help the smile now- the switch had been successful. 

Nicky stood up onto the curb at Neil’s approach, attempting to be the only real friendly face here. Nicholas Hemmick, always the positive one. He threw his hand out for a handshake, and Neil wearily accepted it. 

“Hey,” the man said, using their handshake to pull Neil up to the higher ground with the rest of them. “Flight go okay?” 

“It was fine.” 

“I’m Nicky.” Nicky let go of Neil’s hand after another moment. “Andrew and Aaron’s cousin, backliner extraordinaire.” Whatever. 

Neil was looking between Nicky and the twins doubtfully. Which was warranted, honestly. Nicky was very much latino, and the twins were very much not. He was also annoyingly a foot or so taller than them. 

“By blood?” No, by sperm, dipshit. That comment was very hard not to say out loud. 

Nicky laughed. “Don’t look it, right? Take after my mom. Dad ‘rescued’ her from Mexico on some ministry trip.” Yet another reason why Luther was going to die one day and it was going to be by Andrew’s own hands. Nicky gestured back at the group behind him. “You’ve already met them, right? Aaron, Andrew, Kevin? Coach was supposed to be here to let you in, but he had to head up to the stadium. The ERC called, probably something about how we haven’t publicized our sub yet. In the meantime you’re stuck with us, but we’ve got Coach’s keys. Suitcases in the trunk?” 

“Just this.” Man of few words, this one was. 

Nicky shot a meaningful look behind himself. “He packs light. I wish I could travel like that, but hell if I’m not materialistic.” 

“Materialistic is just a start,” Aaron muttered. 

Nicky grabbed Neil’s shoulder, pointedly ignoring the comment, and led him past the group and to the front door. “This is where coach lives,” he started, presumably just to talk. “He makes all the money, so he gets to live in a place like this, while we poor people couch serf.” 

“You have such a nice car for someone who thinks he’s poor,” and Andrew could have laughed. 

“That’s why we’re poor.” Nicky sent another look towards whichever blond he could get his glare to first, and chose right on the first try. 

Andrew bared his teeth back, but let Neil have his eye contact. “Aaron’s mother bought it for us with her life insurance money,” he explained only because it would be more fun for Neil to know. “It’s no surprise that she had to die to be worth anything.” 

“Easy,” Nicky hissed, but he was watching Aaron. Andrew didn’t care enough to see how he brother had responded. 

“Easy, easy.” He voice was mocking, almost sing-song, and his shrug apathetic. If Aaron cared, he should have expressed it years ago. Andrew was yet to regret a single decision he’d ever made. “Why bother? It’s a cruel world. Right, Neil? You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.” Light taunting. Light. 

“It’s not the world that’s cruel,” Neil responded, because of course he did. “It’s the people in it. 

It was too early in the evening- Hell, too early in the year- for Andrew to even begin to unpack that one. “Oh, so true.” 

The ride up seven floors to Wymack’s apartment was so silent it was eating Andrew’s mind to pieces. However, it was a nice distraction for the way the ground shook uneasily every so often, so all was well. Besides, if it was actually that antsy then Nicky would have started talking by then. He just needed to chill himself out again. The doors opened soon enough, and he kept himself from being the first one out. 

The correct apartment was far enough from the elevator for them to all fall into step in the hallway. Neil dragged behind a step, seemingly trying to take in everything around him. There was something up with this one. They all crowded around the door as Aaron fumbled with the key, and Andrew kept his eyes on that fuzzy mess of black hair of his. 

“Here you go, Neil,” Nicky spoke up first, as soon as the door was pushed open. He gestured for Neil to head in first. “Home sweet home, if anything involving coach can be considered sweet.” 

And Neil stood there silent for a moment, and then another few moments. Nicky shot Aaron a concerned look, and Andrew grew curious enough to bite the bullet and try to catch the look on his face. He stepped forward to do so, and the man was absolutely devouring his lower lip as he stared blankly at the threshold. You’d think it had killed his dog, the way his eyes were trained forward. 

Finally, he seemed to have come to a conclusion- or maybe just a compromise- and stepped on into the apartment. 

Nicky looked between the rest of them and carefully stepped in. His voice was low. “Worum ging es das eigentlich?” ,,What was that all about?’’ 

Neil seemed to stop somewhere by the window, watching pointedly. Seemed tense, but not tense about something outside. Andrew thought about deciding to stop paying attention to him, but came to the conclusion that he didn’t feel like fighting his subconscious today. After a moment he finished the trip and pulled the curtain back a little more. 

Aaron shrugged, also watching Neil as if he were a spider on the other side of the room. “Vielleicht... hat er den moment… genossen?” 

Nicky shook his head. “Nein, das war alles Kampf oder Flucht.” ,,No, that was purely fight or flight.’’ He knitted his eyebrows together, watching Neil from across the room.. “Was hast du ihm im Himmel gesagt, Andrew?” ,,What did you say to him, Andrew?’’ 

Neil looked back at them just then, and Nicky put on his beaming smile that meant he was about to attempt to compensate. “How about a tour?” The language switch made his voice slightly off. 

Neil paused, like he’d had something else to say there. Instead he settled for, “sure.” 

There really wasn’t much there, to be honest. It was just an apartment. Andrew already knew every square inch of it, because he’d gone through it a few different times last year to make sure there wouldn’t be any surprises. He bathroom and kitchen faced each other tediously, and the two bedrooms were down the hall. Wymack had converted the second bedroom into an office, and absolutely every surface of the entire place was covered in papers and ash trays save for the bed, couch, and bathroom. How anything more than an animal- or perhaps an overworked and underpaid sports coach- could live here was beyond Andrew’s willingness to understand. There was a three year old calendar taped to the refrigerator. 

Andrew didn’t follow Nicky and Neil into the office, there was no reason to. Instead he took advantage of the lock he’d broken on the liquor cabinet and grabbed a bottle for the fuck of it. Wymack had told him to buy his own supply, but what was Coach good for if it wasn’t the roof and amenities? 

Kevin muttered something under his breath about how Abby had stressed the sobriety of their dinner plans, and Andrew couldn’t help himself from taunting. 

“Sobriety? She wants me clean for this? Imagine.” 

Kevin rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean, come on.” 

“I never do, Day. I never do.” 

Andrew lead him back to the others and held the bottle up triumphantly when Neil glanced their way upon entrance. “Success.” 

“Ready, Neil?” Nicky was beaming again. “We should probably beat it before Coach shows up again.” 

“Why?” Neil gestured to the bottle in Andrew’s hand. “Is this a robbery in progress?” 

“Maybe it is,” Andrew shrugged, absolutely delighted. “Will you tell Coach on us? So much for being a team player. Seems you really are a fox, yeah?” 

“No.” And Neil shifted, this fucking look on his face. “But I’d ask him why you're not medicated.” 

Oh. Oh, fuck. Andrew stared blankly at him as everyone around them stood there with their mouths open, aghast like dogs or something. It was pretty entertaining, actually. Good job, fucker. Point you. 

Nicky was the first to regain his tongue, and it wasn’t in English. He turned to Aaron. “Ich glaub mich knutscht ein Elch! Ist das eben wirklich passiert? oder ist nur mein Fieber gestiegen?” Pretentious bastard. ,,[exclamatory that means “I’m surprised” basically]! Did that just happen? Or is my fever raising?’’ 

Aaron threw his hands up in a shrug. “Sieh mich nicht an.” ,,Don’t look at me.’’ 

“I’d prefer an answer in English.” Neil seems to not know how to stop, ever. This year was definitely going to be going places. Renee needed to hear about this. Oh, Renee would love this, in fact. 

Andrew put a finger to the corner of his mouth- the pretty pretty manic smile he’d been faking for the last half hour- and wiped it all off dramatically. “That sounds like an accusation, but I don’t remember lying to you.” 

“Ommision is the easiest way to lie,” Neil insisted. “You should have corrected me.” 

Andrew shrugged, and he looked just like Aaron for a second there. “Could have, didn’t. Figure it out yourself.” 

“I did, actually.” Neil did this thing, see. Neil raised two thin fingers to his temple, and he tapped them there, with this cheeky grin. He tapped them there in Andrew’s own mocking salute. “Better luck next time.” The fucker. The absolute little shit. 

“Oh.” Andrew had to blink a few times to keep his heartbeat in control. He was not having this. This little desert trash was not going to come in here and do this and get away with it. “Oh, you might actually turn out to be interesting. Or,for a while, at least. Don’t think the amusement will last- it normally doesn’t.” His voice was as empty as it should be. 

“Don’t mess with me.” Sweetie, they were all well past that. 

“Or what?” 

A rattling in the direction of the front door ruined all of the fun that the room was having. Andrew smiled again, vacant as ever, and leaned in close to Kevin’s side to hand over the bottle of whiskey. 

“Hi, Coach, what brings you here?” He called over his shoulder, not even bothering to turn and look. 

“Do you have any idea how much I hate coming home and finding you in my apartment?” Wymack demanded from somewhere out of sight. His voice carried through the entire apartment. 

Andrew put his hands up exaggeratedly and shrugged, stepping out of the room. “I didn’t break anything this time.” 

“I think I’ll believe that after I’ve taken inventory of everything I own.” The door slammed shut, and the man shrugged past the bunch that had gathered in the hallway to get a look at Neil and Nicky who had apparently stayed behind in the office room. 

He seemed to be staring searingly into the room at something, which meant he had discovered the enigma that was Neil Josten. “I see you made it alright. I was pretty sure Nicky’s driving was going to get you killed.” 

There was a pause in which everyone in the house was collectively testing the limits and boundaries of the new kid. “I’ve survived worse.” It was vague, but somewhat promising. Interesting. He lied well. 

“There’s no surviving worse driving than this idiot’s,” Wymack rebutted, and the tension in the atmosphere was lessened. “There’s just open casket or closed.” 

“Hey, hey!” Nicky complained. “That’s not fair.” 

“Life isn’t fair, tweedle-dumb. Get over it. What are y’all still doing here?” 

“Leaving,” Andrew spoke up finally, having enough. “Goodbye. Is Neil joining us?” 

Wymack shot an uncertain look first to Andrew and then to Neil. “Going where?” 

“Jeez, Coach, what kind of people do you think we are?” Nicky whined jokingly. 

“You don’t really want the answer to that question,” was Wymack’s only response. 

“We’re taking him to the court,” Aaron explained. “We’ll take him to Abby’s later. You don’t need him, do you?” 

“Just to give him this.” There was a metallic clatter, and Andrew just couldn’t believe it for a second there. “Long key is for when the front gate closes at night. Small one gets you into the apartment. The others are for the stadium: Outer food, gear room, and court doors. Kevin has a set of them, so he can show you which is which. I expect you to use them just as much as he does.” 

There was a pause, and then a quiet but unmistakable, “Thank you, I will.” 

Andrew wasn’t taking this without a little bit of fun. “Blatant favouritism, Coach.” 

“If you’d ever go to the court of your own volition, maybe I’d give you a set, too,” Wymack threw over his shoulder. “Since I don’t see that happening any time in this lifetime or the next, you can hush it and share with Kevin” 

Andrew rolled his eyes, even if Wymack wasn’t looking. “Oh, joy, joy. My excited face begins here. Can we go now?” 

“Get out,” Wymack said, and he didn’t have to be told twice. 

Andrew left the front door open for whenever Neil decided to stop hogging up his free time, and leaned himself against the wall in the hallway. Aaron and Nicky followed suit, and Kevin just kind of stood there in the hall with his arms crossed and his eyebrows pulled together. 

“He still isn’t what I’d expected. I thought that maybe it had been the nerves of the game that had gotten him all worked up last time, but that’s just his personality,” He started off. “It’s… Interesting, to say the least. He doesn’t even play well, I mean, why couldn’t we have been given a break on one aspect?” 

Andrew snorted. “I’ not even going to think about that right now. He’s a problem that I’ll figure out later.” 

Kevin looked at him for a second. “Your meds are at the stadium.” 

“Doesn’t matter. I’m not done with him yet.” 

Just as Andrew had decided that they’d leave without him, Neil appeared in the doorway, shoving key rings together. Andrew didn’t take another breath before leaving them all behind to head for the elevator, knowing they’d follow. He stood in front of Neil, back pushed into the bar on the wall, and let the manic smile vanish again. He waited two floors before he pushed away from the wall, rearing at Neil and grabbing for the keys. He wasn’t even really trying for them- just the notion of it was the fun part. 

“How nice to meet you, Neil,” he taunted. “It will be a while again before we see each other again.” 

“For some reason I really don’t think I’m that lucky.” 

“Like this, I mean.” He gestured around them. “It will have to wait until June. Abby threatened to revoke our stadium rights for the summer if we tried anything any earlier. And we can’t have that, can we? Kevin would cry. No worries, though. We’ll wait until everyone is here, and Abby has too many other Foxes to worry about. That’s when we’ll throw you a welcome party you won’t forget.” 

There was no hesitation. “You really need to rethink your persuasion techniques. They suck.” 

“I don’t need to be persuasive,” and Andrew put a hand to Neil’s chest as the elevator slowed to a stop. “People just learn to do what I say.” The doors slid open, and Andrew pushed Neil into the lobby. Neil staggered backwards into the lobby, and Andrew shouldered past him anyways without looking back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to say- thank you for reading, it really means a lot ot me! I wish you all wonderful days to come! :)


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kevin gushes about Neil's potential while Andrew pretends he's not making fun of him, Neil has his first practice, and then they have a talk about privacy. I cut out the entire scene at Abby's just because it didn't do anything and I was bored.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is no excuse as to why it took me ten days to write this. Sorry for that. 
> 
> Content warnings: medication mentions, alcohol, descriptions of withdrawal, descent into a medicated high, emeto (vomit) mentions (no occurrence), joke about child abuse

Nicky was going off about something stupid in the backseat and Andrew honestly just didn’t have the patience to tell him to shut up right now. His hands were sweating worse than normal and his entire body was both made of ice and on fire at the same time. He absentmindedly itched at his shoulder until he realized what he was doing, and then gripped the steering wheel as if he could snap it. He was relieved to see the parking lots, and cruised into the fifth. It would get them to their front entrance. No one cared about exy like the exy team did so many months out of season, so the only cars parked there weren’t facing the doors in any capacity. 

They all piled out of the car, and Andrew just started straight for the door, leaving Neil and the rest of them to pray or whatever jocks did at the main gates. Maybe there was some kind of sacrifice ritual that was supposed to take place, and that’s why Kevin had cared so much about this new striker. Virgin blood or something. 

Andrew decided that he wasn’t allowed to think any more thoughts until he had half of the whiskey bottle in Aaron’s hand in his system. 

“This is our entrance,” Nicky was explaining to Neil as they walked over. “Code changes every few months, but Coach always gives us a heads up. Right now it’s 0508. May and August, yeah? Abby and Coach’s birth months. Told you they were boning. Hey, when’s your birthday?” 

“It was in March.” Neil was answering far too coolly, and it honestly didn’t even seem like he was telling the truth. But that might just be the fuzzy feelings talking. Andrew was forbidding himself from making a single comment. 

“Ah, we missed it. But, hey, we recruited you in April, so that should count as the world’s greatest present. What’d your girlfriend get you?” 

Neil looked up sharply. “What?” 

“Oh, come on. A pretty face like yours has got to have a girlfriend. Unless you swing my way, of course, in which please tell me to save me the trouble of having to figure it out myself.” Leave it to Nicky to start flirting within the first hour of meeting the guy. 

Andrew’s brain was begging to be turned on again, because there was at least one single coherent thought that kept scratching at the door like some kind of cat trying to be thought of. But he was going to be very persistent, especially now. Neil needed a proper fucking shower, and a decent comb. That was the most he was going to let himself think. 

Neil seemed a little confused, a little lost. “Does it matter?” 

“I’m curious,” Nicky said. 

“He means nosy,” Aaron butt in. 

“I don’t swing either way,” Neil said quickly. “Let’s just go in.” 

“Bullshit.” 

“I don’t,” Neil persisted, impatience seeping into his voice. “Now are we going or not?” 

Kevin tapped the key code in and pushed the door open. “Come on.” 

That seemed to be all the permission Neil needed, because he was the first one through the door. Andrew waited until they’d all gone through to follow from behind, trying really hard to blink away the tunnel vision that set in any time he stared in one place for too long. It was pissing him off. 

Neil got to do the honour of unlocking their off-limits part of the stadium, and they were all glad to see that he wasn't afraid of all locked doors. Just Wymack’s, so far. Andrew put it in his head to pay attention when they went to Abby’s. 

He’d taken in the room slowly and calculating, as if he was imagining it at better times. To the surprise of really no one, he stopped to study the picture wall for the longest. 

Andrew had no real attachment to photographs, because there really wasn’t much use for them. One looks at a photograph twelve times in the first week that they took it, five times the second, and three more times in the next year. Made up statistics, yes, but the point was still there. Having all of these here meant nothing to him, and really shouldn’t mean anything to someone that didn’t know any of the people in the pictures by anything but reputation. Neil standing there staring at the pictures was Neil snooping in places that didn’t belong to him. That belonged to Dan and her goals of grandeur that Andrew had no doubt she’d learn how to accomplish even if on pure spite. 

Nicky, of course, could not read minds, nor did he have the same mindset as Andrew, and so when he saw Neil, he went over and started putting names to faces. “Dan, Renee, and Allison. Dan’s good people, but she’ll work you to the bone. Allison’s a catty bitch you should avoid at all cost. Renee is an absolute sweetheart. Be nice to her.” There was no reason to need to be nice to Renee because she’d make you be nice to her if it mattered, and Allison really wasn’t the worst even if Andrew couldn’t stand her, but Andrew had shut off his brain so he wasn’t going to say any of that. 

His mindset towards the female foxes was… Very specific, to say the least. Dan really was a good person, he didn’t have to say that for anyone to know. She could do anything as long as it was something she believed she could do. If she was in the news in ten years for frisbee throwing the andromeda galaxy in the opposite direction, Andrew would have no reason to think it wasn’t true. Allison was a bitch at almost all times, yes. But she was admittedly very funny and also one of the most loyal people he knew. And Renee… Well. Renee didn't need explaining. She was a lot of things, all of them equally good and bad. She could kick your ass and then let you lick the spoon after she made cookies. It was very badass. But she knew that, and they all knew all of these things, so Andrew truly didn't need to bother in explaining any of it. 

“Or else?” Neil mused, because it had been said silently. 

Nicky’d shrugged, and Andrew didn’t need to see his face to know he was smiling. 

“Let’s go,” Kevin urged. 

They all filed out of the room, headed down the narrow hallway. Andrew stayed at the back, deciding he’d done enough observing. Kevin pushed the locker room door open a little to show Neil and then trudged on, and Andrew waited until they'd all moved on before slipping in to grab his pill bottle from Kevin’s locker. He steadied himself a moment there in the darkness, and let a jolting shake run through his body. Maybe that would help keep his hands from wanting to fall off. 

The hallway dead ended into their fun little press room, orange and white and pretty little paw prints all over the place. Andrew was having none of it. Nicky was namin the room or something that didn’t warrant or receive a response, and Andrew straddled onto one of the benches. 

He pulled the pill bottle out of his hoodie pocket and grabbed the whiskey Aaron presented to him. Kevin watched with crossed arms as he took a pill and downed it with as large of a swig of alcohol as his lungs could manage. He shook the container and handed it over, and Kevin took it without comment. 

Andrew decided that he wanted at least half of this in his system before he even said another word. Nothing had set in yet, technically, besides the punch of half-decent malt, and it took him a moment to realize that he’d had to have missed an entire conversation because the next time he looked up they were all huddled around the door to the stadium while Neil unlocked it. Andrew waited for them to all leave the room before he hummed out his frustration. 

The whole reboot process, as Nicky called it, never failed to piss him off. He couldn’t focus on anything for the half hour it took for the meds to take hold. It didn’t even make any damn sense. He wasn’t helpless, there was nothing holding him down. So there really wasn’t any reason that he couldn’t hold onto things during this time like he could sober. He wiped his sweaty hands down his face and laid himself down lazily on the bench, one foot propped on the back and the other flat on the floor, hands behind his head. 

One day closer to being off these shits. One day closer to not feeling so claustrophobic of his own skin. Fuck’s sake. 

He got up, too agitated to sit down for that long. Wymack’s office wasn’t unlocked, so he picked it open. Fuck him. Andrew closed the door behind him and navigated himself to the desk chair in the darkness. If he knocked over a few files he could honestly care so much less. He decided to spin himself in circles until he could feel his heart pounding behind his eyes. Disorientation was a feeling, and it was as good as any. 

Kevin slipped in after a while, turning the light on when he came. “You good? I can get you some water.” 

“I will literally kill you. Like, with my hands.” Andrew held up said hands above his head, spilling around again for extra measure. 

“Got it, got it. Thoughts and opinions on Josten, then?” 

He pushed around to face Kevin, eyes made of plastic. Glass. Whatever. That adjective usage didn’t even make sense. Andrew shook his head. “He’s something, yeah. Something that’s going to end up a pain in my ass.” 

“I don’t get it. He was so scared, when we asked him to sign with us. He plays on his court with his damn highschool nothing team like he’s never had any other purpose in life, like exy is the only reason he’s alive. It’s the prettiest shit I’ve ever seen. He had this… This look in his eye, when he saw ours. Like this deep set passion. As if everything has led up to this moment here, you know? Like you and mint chocolate chip Häagen-Daz. Makes no fucking sense.” He slumped against the door, sliding down slowly until he reached the floor. 

Andrew smiled rudely. How he loathed it. “Damn it all. Seems you’ve gone and found your clone, Kevin.”  
Either Kevin hadn’t heard him or had decided to ignore him. Either could be a possibility, with the way he was staring off. “He’s going to make Court, Andrew. I’ve never been more certain about something. He’ll play with Knox and I, as soon as we graduate. We’ll win gold. He’s got nothing to him but passion. So fucking pretty, man. I’m so excited. He deserves it all, and I know he’s going to get it. If anything happens this year, it’s going to be because he’s here. So excited.” 

Andrew hummed. “Oh, yeah?” 

“Yeah.” He didn’t miss a beat. “Granted, he needs a lot of work. Just because he can run doesn’t mean he can score. And he definitely can’t score on you, and we’ll need that if we want to even qualify for the championships. We can build him up to that, though. He’ll need a lot of conditioning. He needs much more upper body strength. Can’t keep relying on endurance, it’s keeping him from reaching his full potential.” 

“Reckon we work him to the bones just to see how far he’ll go before he lets himself stop?” 

Kevin was however in dumbass jock tunnel vision and probably didn’t even hear him. “Of course, the most productive way to get him more up to speed would be to get him extra practice times. I’ll pay Nicky or Aaron to help if I have to, in case he’s not good enough yet to not have backliners. I’ll bring him in at night, he can sleep when he’s up to speed with the rest of you…” 

“No.” 

His head shot up. “What do you mean, no? No what?” 

“No, I’m not carting you two around at night. Not until after we’ve properly met.” Andrew pushed off the desk, the chair swinging around on the wood floor. 

“What, in June? That’s ridiculous. He’ll be so far behind by then. You’re setting him up for failure.” 

“I don’t trust him, so we are waiting for after I’ve talked to him. This isn’t a real conversation, because I’m not negotiating.” 

Kevin sighed, looking up to the sky and mouthing something like how Nicky did when Andrew argued in this exact same manner. Wonder what that was about. “Fine. Okay, fine. If this wasn’t about exy that would make sense. We can argue about this later.” 

Andrew laughed. “Yeah, sure. Argue about this when you’re still not going to win, when I can beat your ass without hurling afterward. It’ll work out so well for you.” There was a slight pause, where neither of them had the energy or general audacity to say anything else. It wasn’t a hard silence, it was just the aftermath of Kevin. “You think they’re on the court by now? I want to see who’s kicking who’s ass.” 

He squinted at Andrew. “None of them are good enough to be kicking anything. As soon as Nicky’s block streak has consecutively increased then maybe we’ll have that fight. Besides, if you won’t let me train him until June, then Nicky and Aaron aren’t allowed to run him down until then either.” He paused, and then smirked. “But I do bet they’re working him to his grave out there by now.” 

Andrew stood up, and then stilled for a few moments as the edges of his vision fogged up and his body fought off a wave of violent convulsive shaking. He didn’t need to hide it, because Kevin already knew, but it was still the act of having control over a piece of himself in a state like this. He washed away the nausea and impending doom with a generous swig from the stolen liquor. “Let’s go find out just how reckless our rabbit remains, yes?” 

Kevin pushed himself off of the door to stand up. “Nicky’s going to think you’re drunk already, if you don’t compose yourself soon enough.” 

“The shame I feel, so deep in my chest. Swallows me up like oxidation on pennies. So fuzzy and blue I am, inside.” His voice was flat and bored, and he pushed Kevin aside and left the room in one fell swoop. 

“First of all, oxidized pennies are green. Second, who the hell uses oxidized fucking pennies as a simile? You pain me.” 

The two walked through into the stadium, plopping down on the home benches. Andrew laid himself down like some kind of Victorian feeble-hearted maid, and Kevin glared at him from the other end unamused. The boys seemed to be having some sort of conversation that had Aaron throwing his head back and whining dramatically. Finally Nicky sent a look to the benches, and they started. 

They really spent an hour and a half teaching him drills. They really spent an hour and a half making Andrew sit there thumping his leg and providing terribly sarcastic and uncalled for commentary. Kevin’s face was slowly distorting into a scowl- lines like those would need plastic surgery in a few years. 

It ended with a short scrimmage. Nicky and Aaron danced circles around him, and Andrew and Kevin shared a very particular look. It was always fun to be right. The trio seemed to be having some kind of conversation now that had Nicky laughing. Andrew was watching the ball he was throwing around, but he knew Kevin was watching them intently. 

Andrew sat up as the court doors banged closed, and threw the ball to Nicky. Remembering the conversation from earlier about him thinking Andrew would be drunk, he then uncapped the bottle again. “About time! Nicky, it’s so boring waiting on you.” His voice was taunting. Game, set. 

“We’re done now.” He hung his helmet on the end of his racket and reached for the bottle. “It’s about time you stop that, isn’t it? Abby’s going to beat me senseless if she finds out you’ve been drinking.” 

Andrew grinned brilliantly. “Really doesn’t sound like my problem.” 

Nicky glanced at Aaron for help, but he was already halfway to the locker rooms by now and wasn’t intent on stopping. Nicky mimed blowing his brains out and went after him. 

Match. 

“This is going to be a very long season,” Kevin spoke up. 

“I told you I wasn’t ready.” Neil didn’t even sound embarrassed, and Andrew couldn’t decide whether or not that was a good idea.

“Well, you also said you wouldn’t play with us, but here you are.” 

Kevin stepped up into Neil’s space, and Andrew took this moment to lay back down onto the bench and not see this altercation. 

“If you won’t play with me, you’ll play for me,” Kevin continued after a moment. “You’re never going to get there on your own. So give your game to me.” 

“Where is… ‘there’?” 

“Well if you can’t figure that out there’s really no helping you.” There was a moment’s pause, and then Kevin’s annoyed sigh. “Forget the stadium,” he said. “Forget the foxes and your useless high school team and your family. See it the way it really matters, where Exy is the only road to take. What do you see?” 

Neil snorted, and Kevin grunted at him in response. 

“Focus, damn it.” 

Everything was still, to the point where Andrew glanced over at them. Kevin had a hold of Neil’s racket and held a hand over his eyes, inches from his face. It would have been very homoerotic if they weren’t talking about exy. 

“You.” Wow, Neil really knew how to instigate a situation, huh. 

“Tell me I can have your game,” Kevin bit out. 

“Take it.” 

Kevin backed off of him immediately, and sent Andrew a pointed look. “Neil understands.” 

“Well, congratulations are in order, I suppose! Since I have none to give, I will recommend the others respond appropriately.” Andrew pushed himself to his feet. “Neil! Hello. We meet again.” 

“We met earlier,” Neil frowned. “If this is another mind trick, just let it go.” 

Andrew waved the whiskey around, smiling. “Oh, don’t be suspicious. You saw me take my medicine. If I hadn’t, I’d be keeled over by now puking from the withdrawal. As it is, I might puke anyway from all the fanaticism going around.” 

“He’s high,” Kevin explained. “He tells me when he’s sober, so I always know. How did you figure it out?” 

Neil shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. “They’re twins, but they’re not the same. One of them hates your obsession with exy, the other couldn’t care less.” 

Kevin looked to Andrew, but he kept his eyes on Neil. It took him a moment to process the words, and he started laughing. “He’s a comedian, too? An athlete and a comic and a student. How talented. What a grant addition to the Fix line, yeah? Can’t wait to figure out what else he can do. Maybe we can throw a talent show and find out? Oh, but later. Kevin, we’re going. I want food.” 

Kevin threw Neil’s racket back at him, and the three headed for the locker room. Nicky and Aaron were already in the showers, and Neil sat down on the benches seemingly content on waiting for them. 

“We’re not taking you to Abby’s like that,” Kevin commented, arms crossed. “Wash up.” 

“I won’t shower with the team.” The way he said it said it was non-negotiable. “I’ll wait, and if you don’t want to wait on me, just go on ahead. I’ll find my way there from here.” 

This man was going to be the end of all of them, and Andrew really was sure of it at this point. “Nicky going to be a problem for you?” He’d seem the way his cousin kept coming on to Neil, and would be happy to put an end to it on someone else’s terms. 

Neil watched him carefully, and Andrew suddenly remembered the manic smile on his own face. Neil had taken that as a threat. “It’s not about Nicky. It’s about my privacy.” 

Kevin snapped his fingers in Neil’s face to get his attention. “Well, get over it. You can’t be shy if you’re going to be a star.” 

Andrew leaned toward Kevin and put a hand to his own mouth as if to tell a secret, but didn’t bother to lower his voice. “He has to hide his ouches, Kevin. I broke into 

Coach’s cabinet and read his files. Bruises, or scars? I think scars, too. Can’t be bruises if his parents aren’t around to beat him, right? 

The colour drained from Neil’s face. “What did you just say?” 

“I don’t care,” Kevin whined to Andrew, ignoring Neil.

Andrew responded by gesturing at Neil. “Shower’s aren’t communal here. Coach put stalls up when he built the stadium. The board wouldn’t pay for it- they didn’t see a point- so it came out of Coach’s own pocket. Look for yourself, if you don’t believe me. You don’t believe me, do you? I know you don’t. That's probably for the best.” 

Neil seemed to have not even heard him. “You had no right to read my file!” Andrew looked at him for a second, just taking that all in. His eyes were ablaze. Okay, so he had privacy issues. That’s… An interesting addition to the table. Neil really was just a potluck of problems, wasn’t he. 

Andrew laughed. “Relax, relax, relax. I made that up. We were locked in Coach Arizona’s office to watch the game on the local sports station. And he said our secret meet-and-greet would be easy because you always showers last without anyone else there. Told Coach he still couldn’t find your parents. Coach asked if they'd be a problem, and Arizona said he didn’t know because he’d never met them a single time. Said they spent a lot of time commuting to their jobs in Phoenix, and had no time to check up on little ol’ you. But I’m right, aren’t I?” 

Neil opened his mouth to retort, but closed it quickly he took a steadying breath, in and out through his teeth. He stormed off to the bathroom quickly, and Andrew followed close behind. His face seemed to do something when he saw that Andrew had been telling the truth, but Andrew couldn’t tell if it was relief or frustration. 

“Weird, right?” Andrew said into his ear, and then caught the elbow that had nearly been thrown into his gut in response. Neil had flinched. Hm. He laughed and took a few mindful steps back. Practice what you preach. “Coach never explained it. Maybe he thought we'd need to grieve our losses in privacy. Only the best for his rising stars, am I right?” 

“I don’t think Wymack recruits rising stars,” Neil muttered, pushing past Andrew to get to his locker. 

“No,” he laughed. “The Foxes will never amount to anything. Try telling that to Dan, though, and she’ll box your ears.” He scooped up the bottle and left Neil to do his thing. “Kevin, car.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey uh thank you for reading, I genuinely appreciate it. I wish you a wonderful week and a cherished life. Let me know if you're having as much fun as I am :)


	4. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this chapter was the direct definition of Hassliebe. Made me want to eat rocks so many times. If you think this is bad you should see what I've cut. But it was all made better because I love Renee dearly. :) 
> 
> Content warnings: rape joke, suicide mention (both of these are canon events)

“Nicky, I am actually not kidding,” Aaron’s hands framed his face in a very particular way, with his thumbs on his cheekbones and his index fingers running circles into his temples. “If you say one more thing about Josten’s legs I’m going to surgically remove yours. You know who wants to hear about this? No one. We know you think he’s pretty. We know.” 

Nicky laughed, swerving into the turning lane without a care in the world about the person he’d just cut off. How any of them had gotten their drivers’ licenses was truly a mystery. “I’m just saying! I’m just saying.” 

Kevin made that cutting gesture that he always thought people listened to. It made Andrew smile, how confident he was that the movement worked at all. “Well, stop saying and focus on not clipping someone. We’re already late, I’m not dealing with being even more late just because we had to deal with an accident.” 

His first mistake had been thinking Nicky gave a shit about what Kevin thought he should be doing, because Nicky brake checked the car in the middle of his turn. It was only for a second, but Andrew could see the glint in his eye through the rear view mirror. 

Kevin was silent in his tight-mouthed, petty kind of way as they pulled into the stadium parking lot and filed out and into the building. It was already unlocked, which could only mean that Neil was already inside. Ah, yes, the thesis of this entire endeavor. Neil Josten. 

They changed to the humming of the boiler room, giving Kevin the slightest inch in not taking twelve years to do so. They were all just ready to get this done with and be  
back in the comfort of Abby’s pool again. 

Nicky let out a low and long sort of whistle when they entered the outer court, eyes trained on Josten. He stood in the middle of the court with his racket in his hand like he didn’t know what else to do with himself. “Those shorts. Thank God for those shorts.” 

Kevin pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’d rather be dead in a ditch right now than hear you mention Neil’s shorts again, please I am actually begging you.” 

Andrew laughed, sarcastic and manic. “That can definitely be arranged! We’d have to tell Neil that we’re cancelling thou--” Kevin steered his shoulders towards the court doors, and Andrew let his words trail off in a hissing laugh. 

Aaron and Nicky scattered balls across the first-fourth, and they all started drills. Andrew had woken up this morning with the confirmation in his head that he wasn’t going to try today, sure, but it was far more fun to play whack-a-mole than it was to stand there with his thoughts. 

Neil had this composure to him when he played that suggested he was trying much harder to watch everyone else than he was actually playing, and that was honestly saying a lot considering he was also focusing a great deal on playing. It was interesting to watch. 

Okay, he decided that he was going to stop thinking about Neil now. Because Neil had taken that shower he’d mentioned. And Andrew had gotten an entire night to think about it already anyways, and his eyebags really told that story for itself. There was a Great Gatsby quote- something about ‘creative temperament’- that came to mind, but he had never actually read the book so he wasn’t allowing himself to recall what Goodreads had to say about his predicament. 

Kevin managed to get a handful more goals than Andrew had convinced himself he was going to give away, in this time of him dropping guidelines on everything that he wasn’t going to let himself think about. Neil seemed to be mesmerized by this, and Andrew had to remind himself that most of the world hadn’t been there while Kevin had spent months working himself up to where he is now. Most of the world hadn’t snapped two different practice sticks to keep Kevin from going too hard too fast. 

After a while Kevin kicked everyone else off the court for a break, and he pounded out patterns at Andrew for a little while longer. He looked like he was trying to tell Andrew something, the way he’d get very specifically aggressive with very particular shots, but Andrew was not one for learning mannerisms. He knew two languages and that was enough, Kevin wasn’t a language he was willing to learn. 

Finally Kevin relented to sighing very emphatically, turning and craning his neck towards the court door, and then sent a look his way. He threw his hands forward with a gesture, and then pointed into the distance. Oh, fine. Andrew rolled his eyes and chucked the ball towards Kevin’s head as he went by. 

He relented to go finding the rest of his group, who were circled at the wall with the water fountain on it. He blinked at them as if he had been surprised to see them there, because it was just fun. “Kevin wants to know what’s taking you so long. Did you get lost?” 

“Nicky’s scheming to rape Neil,” Aaron said, no intonation present. “There are a couple flaws in his plan he’ll need to work out first, but he’ll get there.” It was a joke. He was joking. They were all joking. Haha, funny. Indeed. 

“Wow, Nicky,” and he knew the joke wouldn’t catch. “You start early.” 

“Can you blame me?” 

And Andrew was moving before he’d even thought about it. No, that wasn’t true- he was thinking about nothing but that, but he wasn’t thinking about Nicky in the context, so perhaps he hadn’t truly been thinking at all. A thousand words and a thousand hands flashed just out of reach in the hazy area that the capsules in Kevin’s locker couldn’t quite turn into pretty colours. He grabbed a handful of Nicky’s jersey and threw him into the wall, and Nicky at least had the better judgement not to push him away. Neil seemed to be watching the ordeal with calculative interest. 

“Hey, Nicky,” Andrew’s voice was always harsh and slightly slurred in German, and this was no different. Sing-song. Pretty in that sour kind of way. “Fass ihn nicht an. Verstehst?” ,,Don’t touch him, you understand?’’ 

“Du weißt, ich würde ihm nie wehtun. Wenn er ja sagt--” Nicky didn’t know. Nicky didn’t know. ,,You know I’d never hurt him. If he says yes…’’ 

“Ich sagte nein.” 

“Zefix, du bist gierig.” Nicky laughed, despite himself. “Sie haben bereits Kevin, warum ist--” ,,Jees, you’re greedy. You already have Kevin, why does it--’’ 

Andrew was immediately done with this conversation, done with this day, this hour, this moment, every moment after it. Nicky went quiet, feeling the piece of metal pressed into his abdomen through his jersey. His face didn’t change, and Nicky swallowed hard and loud. 

“Shh, Nicky, shh.” His voice was mockingly spiteful, consoling and bittersweet. There was more than one name to put to his face, which warranted a very particular pronoun placement that was honestly delightful. “Warum das lange Gesicht? Alles wird okay.” ,,why the long face? It’ll be okay.’’ 

And there was a long, long silence. Seconds felt long, at least. Seconds felt like hours when they really mattered. Not because time was running slower- because his mind was moving so slow and so fast at the same time that time couldn’t keep up. No, time was moving the same way it always did. But the room definitely wasn’t. The smile on his face was much prettier than it felt. 

It was Neil, actually, who spoke up first. Because of course it was. “Hey,” he stumbled, grasping, probably. Andrew didn’t turn to watch. “That’s enough.” 

“Quiet,” Nicky urged in English, voice barely over a whisper. Oh, he was scared. He’d be scared. “Quiet. It’s fine.” 

“Hey,” Neil repeated. There was another pause where his mind refused to let time leave its grasp. “Are we playing, or not? Kevin’s waiting.” 

Andrew’s head snapped in his direction, considering. 

Oh. Oh. Okay. 

“Oh, you’re right. Let’s go, or we’ll never hear the end of it.” 

He let go of Nicky and spun away. The knife was neatly put away before he’d made it to the door, and he was still working on doing the same to his face. He latched onto his arm with his other hand and dug his fingers into his skin until his breath hitched. 

Kevin seemed like he was about to say something stupid as Andrew rejoined him on the court empty handed. He bared his teeth at him and winked, and Kevin rolled his head back in response. 

“Can you please, just once, be useful?” 

Andrew was so far away from being in the mood for this that he couldn’t see the mood with the Hubble telescope. He was so far out of the mood that he couldn’t think of any more clever metaphors to go with the situation. He was so far out of the mood he couldn’t remember if the use of ‘so’ made the phrase a metaphor or a simile. 

“Seems I need to re-teach you what it means to be useless, Day.” His face scrunched into a sarcastic smile, and he shook his head a little. 

Kevin answered with something that sounded like a swear, but it was in French and Andrew would rather be waterboarded than think about the French language. 

It equally saved them and doomed them that Nicky, Aaron, and Neil came through the court doors then. Kevin flicked his hand, splitting them like the- Red?- Sea. “Aaron is with me. Nicky and Andrew get the child. Two-man team scrimmage with an empty away goal.” 

Their conversation bounced around the silent stadium. 

“I’m not a child,” Neil piped up. “You’re only a year older than me.” 

Kevin ignored that, but Nicky spoke up before he could keep going. “Shouldn’t Andrew be with you and Aaron? Then Neil can practice shooting on them.” 

Andrew could hear Kevin’s eye roll from the goal. “If I thought he could make it to the goal, I would have set it up that way.” 

“Them’s fighting words,” Nicky pushed excitedly. He muttered something too quiet for Andrew to hear at Neil. 

There were only five of them, but they stood as if they had a full team. The confidence was unfortunate. Andrew was given temporary acting dealer privileges from his place on goal, and shot the ball all the way up to the other end of the court. He watched Neil shoot off like a bottle rocket to get in before Aaron could close him off. Also unfortunate, because the play was obvious. 

They let him come boredly, and Kevin popped the ball out of his racquet- and then the racquet out of his hands- as soon as he was within range. 

Kevin’s voice was sharp and full master-mode now. “Keep count.” He took the ball and went after Nicky next. The ball went over Andrew’s shoulder a moment later, and he yawned at it. 

“You could at least try,” Kevin grumbled, and Andrew crossed his arms over the top of his racquet. Staring Kevin in the eye through their helmets. 

“Could, couldn’t I?” 

Nicky threw the rebound back at him, and he caught it with his glove. He stopped paying attention after the serve, really. After a few minutes, Kevin scored again. He blinked a few times- whoops. 

Neil hissed something at Aaron that bounced around the court too much to be understood, and Aaron turned to him easily and said something that looked so matter-of-fact it could only come from someone that Andrew shared a face with. They set up for another serve. 

The whole thing was a disaster, to say the least. If Andrew was Kevin, he’d be pissed. But because Andrew was Andrew, he was trying very very hard not to piss himself laughing. It took Kevin forty minutes to finally snap. 

He swept his racquet at the backliners angrily. “Get out. Both of you get out right now.” 

“Thank God,” Nicky sighed, and ran for it. 

Kevin didn’t move until Aaron was closing the court doors, and at that moment he grabbed hold of the grate of Neil’s helmet and pulled him toward Andrew’s goal. Andrew straightened up. Perhaps something fun was to come of this. 

Kevin dropped the striker off on the foul line, and threw his hand out demandingly to Andrew. “Ball.” Andrew tossed it over, only because he was too interested to be difficult. Kevin pushed it into Neil’s chest. “You stay here and fire on Andrew until he’s tired. Maybe you’ll score once.” 

“Uh oh,” Andrew laughed. “This won’t end well.” Because nothing ever truly did, when Andrew was involved. 

Andrew sighed, watching Neil grab the bucket of balls they'd stored in the corner during the scrimmage and pull it to the first-fourth line. His streak of not doing anything had been directed towards Kevin. Technically letting Neil score over and over again would piss off Kevin even more, but was that victory greater than watching Neil get more and more pissed at him? Andrew decided not. 

Neil set up his first shot, and Andrew swung his long as ass racquet evenly at it, knocking the ball into the away doors. 

Neil was being very, very stupid. They’d been going at it for a while now. He was clearly tired. His hand twitched when he swung, and he had this look of stone on his face that said he’d rather take the pain that was numbing out his arms than admit defeat. He was getting irritated, and it was all pissing Andrew off. 

So Andrew swung his racquet like this was a tennis tournament, and Neil didn’t make it close to the goal. 

It finally seemed to occur to Neil that he’d pushed himself too far when his racquet came flying out of his hands and followed his swing. Andrew laughed as it skidded across the court towards the goal. He knocked the ball straight back at Neil, who no longer had a racquet to defend himself with. The ball thumped against his arm guards where he’d thrown his hands up to protect himself, and he stumbled backwards against it. Holy fuck, he’d really exhausted himself. 

“Let’s go,” Andrew sighed. “Tick tock. I won’t wait forever for you.” 

Andrew concluded he did not have any brain cells. Kevin 2.0. This was ridiculous. Neil went after his racquet again. Picked it up, and then dropped it again when his hands spasmed out. He stood there staring down at it for a moment like he’d never been this helpless in his life. 

“Oh no, Neil’s in trouble!” 

Neil glared at him, and bent down to pick up his racquet again. Andrew propped his arms up on his own to watch. He got the racquet raised all the way up to his shoulder before he dropped it again. The ball rolled away harmlessly. 

“Can you, or can’t you?” 

Neil looked up at him for a moment before crouching by his racquet in defeat. “I’m done.” His voice was bitter. 

Andrew left the goal and came toward him, stopping with one foot on that damned racquet. Neil made an attempt to take it back, but he didn’t seem to be strong enough. Even less successful was his attempt to push Andrew off of it. 

“Get off my racquet,” He ground out. 

“Make me?” Andrew laughed, spreading his arms out in invitation. “Try, anyway.” 

“Don’t tempt me.” 

“Such fierce words for such a little creature,” He challenged.” You’re not very bright. Such is typical of a jock.” 

“Hypocrite.” Ah, yes, clever response. 

Andrew gave him a thumbs up in response, and left him to figure out the court by himself. He only glanced back once as he slammed open the court doors, and Neil was sprawled out on his back on the fowl line as if he’d just fallen over. Such a shame that such a man had been wasted on such a sport. 

\---

And, of course, because the world has never answered Andrew’s wishes, not once, they spent the next few weeks with similar yet less exerting results. Neil, getting progressively less enthusiastic about practicing, and Kevin, getting progressively less enthusiastic about bringing up his star pupil. Andrew understood the frustration, however- Kevin was a product of his environment. Elitism and stick-up-ass-ism, all wrapped with the pretty pink bow of prolonged abuse. Neil didn’t know that, though. To Neil, Kevin was just an asshole. Granted, Kevin was an asshole, but there was definitely a little bit of leeway in it. Andrew might need to talk to Betsy about his psyche- he just thought a halfway positive thought about Kevin fucking Day. 

It took two weeks for Renee to call him. Andrew was hanging halfway out of Abby’s bathroom window smoking a cigarette when his phone buzzed at his side. Only she would call at a time like this- it was past one in the morning. Mountain life was two hours behind, however, so it was only eleven there. 

“Andrew,” her voice was calm but pleased. “I’m on speaker, is that okay?” 

He snorted. “Who’s there?” 

There was a bit of muttering in the background. “Dan’s here. I can kick her out, if you want.” 

Dan groaned loudly. “Oh, come on! I thought we agreed that he didn’t have to know! I was going to be quiet and wait for any mention that Nelson is ali-- don’t give me that face, you know I can’t argue with that face! I am morally correct, damn it!” 

Andrew hummed slightly. “Josten breathes. Go find someone else to bother, flea.” 

“See? All is well. I told you Andrew doesn’t lie.” Andrew heard Dan trying to protest, too quiet for the mic to properly pick up. “Stephanie should be working on the orange sauce now, you should probably go help her. She’s not the best at cooking.” More grumbling, and then the sound of a door opening and closing. 

Renee waited a moment, probably trying to make sure Dan’s footsteps actually went down the hall. “I can’t take it off speaker. Not getting bleach on my phone again. Dan was wondering how our new striker was faring, so I figured a status update was in order.” 

“And whose status are we updating, Walker? His or mine?” 

You could hear her smile in her voice. “Nothing gets past the great Andrew Minyard. It can be both, if it needs to be?” 

“I already have one shrink, I don’t need another one.” But he waved his hand in the air a little, considering. “Josten is interesting, to say the least. He fucks with Kevin pretty well. You should see it. The highlight of practice. But there’s something about him. I don’t think he’s said a single truthful word since stepping foot in South Carolina.”

She hummed calculatively, in some kind of peaceful stupor of thought. Renee deserved big fancy adjectives. “Do you think this will be a problem?” 

“Can’t decide that for another few weeks. Abby said no, and apparently I’m to listen to her. Did you know that? Unbelievable. I don’t know why I keep her around.” 

“Maybe it has something to do with the food? I hear her cheesecake is incredible.” Andrew had been sleep deprived and halfway to high when he’d texted Renee about how good the cheesecake he’d stolen from Abby’s fridge was. He had thought it was store bought, but she found out Abby had made it herself. Renee enjoyed reminding him of that one, and it was the closest thing to a regret he had. 

Andrew ignored her. “I’m still unsure as to if I’m just paranoid or not, though. Because that could be it. He hasn’t been a problem yet, but also really hasn’t been around long enough to be. Wymack won’t tell me fuck-all.” 

Renee seemed to take a second to put things together. “Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe he wants you to learn things for yourself. The thrill is in the hunt, right? Or maybe he just doesn’t know anything.” 

“Too many maybes. The thrill is leaving. When’s your flight for?” 

“Ninth. But if I tell Dan there’s something to worry about we’d be on the next flight out.” It was an unspoken question- can you handle this or not. Renee knew better than to ask if Andrew was troubled about something, but she was clever enough to find work-arounds. 

“Save your charity money for the Haitians, Walker. We don’t need it.” He waved his hand dismissively, even if Renee couldn’t see it. She knew his mannerisms, probably. He had decided he wasn’t going to think about the fact that he’s submitted to the mortifying ordeal of being known for her. 

“So you’re thinking of Haiti for the Christmas charity? Interesting, I--” 

He hung up on her immediately. Needless conversation that could easily happen in a few weeks when she and Dan returned from their Great North. She texted him a good night with a smiley face and it concluded to him that there were no hard feelings. 

\---

Andrew hated these damn night practices. He hated them because Kevin had stopped making snide comments about him not joining. Things started becoming increasingly less fun when there was no real reward. He also hated them because they made him exhausted in the morning, and it meant someone needed to wake him up, and he hated the feeling that he got from someone shaking him awake. He decided a long time ago that he didn’t feel fear, but that was close to it in a very unsettling way. 

And halfway through, while Andrew was convincing himself that carving words into the stands wasn’t worth it even if it would pass the time and might be fun to do, someone entered the stadium. It didn’t take long to figure out who it was. No one else had the heart to come in here so late at night. Wymack’s office was before this, so if they were vandals they had no reason to come all the way in there. Andrew had just been very hopeful that Neil wouldn’t care this much about the stupid sport to run all the way out here at this hour. 

Neil stood watching Kevin throw himself into his work for a bit, his stature stiff and very specific of himself. Neil’s shoulders were tense like this only when he was watching Kevin or the court, really. It was an odd thing. And if Andrew could see his eyes, they’d be all blown out like he’d never seen anything so incredible before. 

And then he shifted, slightly, and Andrew knew he’d been spotted. Damn. 

“Won’t you play with him?” 

It took Andrew a moment to realize he’d been addressed. He made a sound somewhere near a snort. “No.” Neil didn’t know about the arguments Kevin and he had had over this. He didn’t know about Riko trying to recruit him, and him seeing how less-than-human the Moriyamas had made that team. Andrew wasn’t touching that court on his off time without a fight. 

“I think he’d benefit if you did.” 

Andrew rolled his eyes. “And?” 

Neil turned slowly. I took a few moments for his eyes to find Andrew up in the stands. That was another interesting thing about Neil Josten: Andrew couldn’t see it from how far away he was, and there weren’t enough of the lights on, but he knew Neil had his searching look on his face. The calculative look that said he knew where every exit was and that he could get to it before you. It was the part that broke his entire facade, actually. 

He was watching Andrew, looking him up and down. His head settled without his eyes, and Andrew knew Neil was curiously observing his armbands. 

Ah, yes, those. 

There was a simple story for those. The story was simple because he didn’t tell it. Not because he was ashamed of it- no, his past was a part of him and he was fiercely protective of every second of himself- but because no one needed to know about them. He hadn’t added to the white lies- lines, lines, he meant lines- in years, and he didn’t plan to. The past and present are two different places, and the soft blue flowers Renee has sewn into the insides of these ones were proof of that in its entirety. 

Andrew reached in and pulled out the edge of a long and slender knife from the sheathes on the inside. It’s a metaphor, you see. Andrew had always hated that book. He slid the knife back in a few moments later. 

“Is that your slow attempt at suicide, or do you actually have sheathes built into those?” Neil mused, and Andrew could hit him right here. It was very ironic how stupidly clever he was. More emphasis on stupid than on -ly. 

“Yes.” There really was no real way to answer that, anyway. 

“That’s not the one you tried to cut Nicky with. How many knives do you carry?” 

“Enough,” he said, so casually. He hoped that that wasn’t a lie, he really did. 

“What happens when a referee catches you with a weapon on the court? I think that’s a little more serious than a red card.” There’s that one-track brain of his. Andrew had wondered where it went. “You’d probably get arrested, and they might even suspend our entire team until they think they can trust us again. And then what?” 

“I’d grieve forever,” he rolled his eyes even if Neil couldn’t see it, voice falling flat. 

“Why do you hate this game so much?” 

Andrew didn’t hate the game. He had no reason to. It hadn’t wronged him. But he wasn’t allowed to like things. Especially things he was good at. He sighed at Neil. “I don’t care enough about exy to hate it. It’s just slightly less boring than living is, so I put up with it for now.” 

“I don’t understand.” And who, pray tell, said you were supposed to? 

“That’s not my problem.” Nothing about Neil was allowed to be his problem. 

“Isn’t it fun?” 

“Someone asked me that same thing two years ago. Should I tell you what I told him? I said no. Something as pointless as this game can never be fun.” 

“Pointless?” Neil rolled his neck back dramatically. “But you have real talent.” 

“Flattery is uninteresting and gets you nowhere.” 

“I’m just stating facts. You’re selling yourself short. You could be someone, if only you’d try.” He had that wonder-struck look in his face, you could see it in the line of his shoulders. Andrew could hit him. 

He smiled, sharp and cold. “You be someone. Kevin says you’ll be a champion.” He twirled his finger in the air. “Four years and you’ll go pro. Five years, and you’ll be Court. Promised the school board. He argued until they signed off on you.” 

Neil stumbled back a little. “He- he what?” 

“Yeah, then Kevin finally got the green light to sign you, and you took off running,.” he continued. “Curious that a man with so much potential, who has so much fun, who could ‘be something,’ wouldn’t want any of it. Why could that be?” 

It took a long time for Neil to respond with read words. He was stammering and staggering, like a scared animal. “You’re lying,” he finally concluded, voice unrevealing. “Kevin hates me.” 

“Or you hate him,” Andrew suggested. “I can’t decide. Your loose ends aren’t adding up.” 

“I’m not a math problem.” 

Oh, sweetheart, you’re worse than a math problem. Andrew found math inconvenient, because it was boring and far too straightforward. Except for geometry, sometimes, because his sophomore geometry teacher had been an eccentric old man that listened to too much Neil Young and had been fun to talk to. But Neil was a little worse than inconvenient. He was just unfortunate. 

“I’ll still solve you, though.” Dismissive. Nonchalant. 

Neil turned away just as Kevin started packing up, and Andrew got up. His shoes squeaked as he descended the stands like stairs. “You are a conundrum,” he finished. 

“Thank you.” 

Andrew slipped past him without looking at his face. Fuck that. He was going to get some sleep if it meant a damn sedative. “No, thank you. I need a new toy to play with.” 

“I’m not a toy.” 

“Guess we’ll see.” 

Kevin opened the court doors with his helmet in his hands, and looked right past Andrew to Neil. “Why are you here?” 

“I wanted to practice.” 

“As if it’d help you.” It sealed the deal easily. Neil wasn’t going to believe that Kevin had spent weeks in conference meetings to get him on this team. It had been very annoying, especially because Kevin had spent hours beforehand calling everyone by only gender neutral pronouns to get into the groove of it and had still slipped up twice. Keeping Josten from leaks was the hardest thing Kevin’s rich boy hands had ever done, it seemed. What a shame that it was all going to waste- his elite soldier had no confidence in his role. 

Andrew took hold of Kevin’s gear as he shed it off onto the home benches, over gloves and arm guards and helmet. Kevin looked over at him as he picked up his racquet again, eyes on fire. “Andrew?” 

“Ready already,” he replied, already headed for the locker room. 

Truly, there were only two endings to this year. And they were both in flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, I have only written the word "racquet" fourteen times in this entire piece. Eleven of them are in this chapter. 
> 
> Anyways. Have fun with this. Tell me anything fun! :)


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We are officially in the dorms!:) Andrew decides to sleuth out whatever Neil is hiding, and does not find a single answer. Neil doesn't take it very well. F.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So UHHHHH I might of. Completely forgot I was writing this! Very sorry about that it's literally been like. actual months now. Wow. Well anyways, here you go! I liked writing this one it's got a few funny parts. Sorry if my writing is different now?? I accidentally got roped into liking kandreil/kandrew so:] it's been fun times. Anyways 
> 
> Content warnings: choking, I make more highkey foster care references because we don't get much rep ever and I have latched onto this damn character and he's getting everything I can possibly remember to give him, the insinuation of that ableist comment Neil makes but I don't say it. I think that's it?

“Andrew, I refuse to allow this conversation to go on any longer.” Abby came around the island to drop her plate into the garbage can on the other side, sending a very judgmental frown his way. “I’m not letting you argue with Kevin about the shape of the Earth. That’s it.” 

Aaron pointed his bagel at her, eyebrows raised. “This is a classic case, I say. A classic case of retrograde.” 

Andrew nodded, not looking up from the waffles he was working through critically. “It comes from the hole. The bagel hole.” 

“The Earth does not have a bagel hole!” Kevin’s voice was high pitched and his face was as red as a grape. “If the Earth was bagel shaped, it would throw off it’s entire course. And gravity would be much stronger.” 

Andrew curled his lip up theatrically. “You believe in gravity? Oh, that’s rich.” 

Nicky came in just then, frowning in a way Nicky only did when he’d just woken up. “Are any of you aware of what time it is?” 

“Are you aware of what day it is?” Abby responded, handing him an empty mug. 

“Never am,” he grumbled, taking the mug and maneuvering around her towards the coffee pot. 

“It’s eight am on June ninth, and you’re out of my house by one at the latest. Hear that, Hemmick? You’ll have to buy your own creamer and stop using all of mine.” Abby smiled, thumping him on the head. “Goes for all of you. I’ve never gone through so many eggs so quickly. You’re all heathens. What do you even do with them, lay them? Hatch the chickens?” 

Aaron blinked at her. “Egg-lympics. Family tradition.” 

“Please never elaborate. Ever.” 

Andrew’s phone pinged at that moment, a text from Renee telling him she was on her way. It was a five hour flight from Fargo to Upstate Regional, after the two hour drive from Jackson to Fargo. She’d been packing all night- they’d been on call basically the entire time, until she’d realized that it was two in the morning for Andrew. Her persuasion skills were aggravating. 

“That Renee?” Abby nodded to the phone. He didn’t respond, but it basically went without saying. Andrew blocked all of the upperclassmen’s numbers except for Renee the moment they went off to the airport at the beginning of the summer, and would unblock them tomorrow or whenever Renee convinced him to. 

It was all a fun game, really. Andrew had nothing real against the other half of their team. Well, most of them. Seth was still in limbo, but they were working on him. If he really needed any of them, he knew they would help him out. He kept them blocked to remind himself that he wasn’t supposed to need any of them. Renee did not count, because it still went undiscovered if Renee was truly human at all. Joan of something alright. Renee did not help him, she helped herself. It was just that her interpretation of self help had to include someone else, or she might lose her Sainthood. Or something. Who knew. 

Andrew realized he’d been staring into the distance tracing the table grain for a good few minutes now, and Abby was trying to take his plate from him. He blinked a few times, and then got up and threw it out himself. 

He caught the end of whatever Kevin had been telling Aaron about the curvature of the Earth in relation to gravity and climate, and immediately decided that this was going to turn into a conversation about historical world relations way too quickly and left the room to go pack. 

Well. “Pack.” Andrew didn’t spend most of his life as a ward of the state of California to not know how to live in a room for a few months without keeping any of his things in places that it would take more than ten minutes to put together. However, he was deciding to take it upon himself to figure out how to tetris the bean bag chairs into the back of his car. They were Aaron’s favourite piece of furniture, and by whatever god he could oppose they were going to get those damn unnecessarily large shits into the dorm room again this year. 

Staring at the three chairs they’d shoved into a corner of the room reminded Andrew that he was shorter than the average person. He, in turn, had shorter arms than the average person as well. Technically he could just call Nicky or Kevin to come up here and take them for him, because they had the wingspan to just pick up the damn things and carry them down. However, Andrew had never been known to take the simple way out of anything. He dug his hands into two of them and pulled, deciding that he would be the god of this land he’d be fighting to get them down to the car. 

And that, of course, was a mistake. 

Doorways, naturally, are not wide enough for two bean bag chairs to be dragged through next to each other. There was very little Andrew could do to not pull them through that way, seeing as they were awkward to carry and deserved to be manhandled because of it. Andrew had expected them to come through with a bit of tugging. He had expected them to get stuck, at least a little bit. No problem. 

What he did not expect was that when you put your weight into pulling abnormally large but light items through spaces, once they are pulled free you will in fact go in the direction you were pulling. And when you are athlete shaped, that means you make a loud noise when you crash into the wall opposite the guest bedroom door. 

Nicky and Aaron showed up before Andrew could stand up and pull the chairs off of himself. He got up with a huff, and stared his brother directly in the eye. 

They stood like that for a full few seconds before Aaron broke. He squeezed his eyes shut and snorted, head rolling back. 

Nicky was basically eating his hand trying not to laugh, and when Andrew sent a cold look his way he started full out cackling. 

“It’s not funny. I swear, it’s not funny.” Aaron muttered, eyes looking up at the ceiling with his face distorted to try to hold his grin back. 

Andrew rolled his eyes. “I’ll remember this. The next time you want to convince Kevin it’s a holiday to get out of practice you can organize that by yourself. Why do we even hold onto these. They came straight from Dante’s eighth ninth circle. Treachery, I say. Someone get them in the damn car.” 

“Nicky, will you help him out before he decides to find inspiration from the seventh ring as well? He’s going to break something be it himself or one of Abby’s crosses.” He let a lazy smirk seep out. 

“Jesus didn’t have to die that many times. She could stand to lose a few, I think.” Andrew waved his hand dismissively, kicking the closest bag in Aaron’s direction. 

Nicky picked up the one he’d just kicked and bear hugged it, beaming. “Well, at least one of us here is on her good side still, so I’m just going to take these outside before that is changed. 

\---

As it turns out, they officially left a few minutes after their scheduled eviction, because Nicky decided to bring up Catherine the Great with Kevin and Abby decided to lecture him about inciting fights at time-sensitive events. Aaron and Andrew sat in the car for a full ten minutes waiting for the chewing out to be completed- Kevin came out halfway through and when Aaron looked over to him for answers he just shook his head silently. 

It turned out alright, though, apparently, because when Nicky joined them he was carrying a covered plate with extra cookies from last night on it. Aaron let out a whoop, and Nicky beamed at him. 

“Oh, that was so worth it.” 

Kevin scowled. “How do you always pull that off? You were getting your ass handed to you in there.” 

“Magician never reveals his secrets, young one.” 

Aaron snorted. “More like a wheedler.” 

Nicky started the car, and held up a finger in objection. “Wheelding insinuates that I am using flattery and cajolery. Do you take me for a dishonest man? I would never use flattery against a woman. I use sophistry. Fallacious arguments, if you will. This is basic business.” 

The noise that Kevin made was somewhere between a gasp and a grunt, It was a little like a porcupine, and was just as undignified as one. Well maybe that was too far. Porcupines were dignified. They were sharp and pointy but in a cuddly way, and Andrew admired them for that. 

He realized he hadn’t caught what Kevin had said, but based on the way Nicky was laughing it probably had been a comment on how close the word fallacious is to the word phallic. Not to dispute it- Nicky was an incredibly smart individual, but he tended to use it to be collegiate. 

They appointed Aaron the one to get the key from Wymack at the stadium, because he was the one least likely to get dragged into doing something. 

Palmetto was essentially set up like a little loop, encompassed in the, well, perimeter, of Perimeter Road. The buildings, offices, and dormitories were in a pretty straightforward enclosed area together. One of the few exceptions to this was Fox Tower, because a hill forced the Road to hug the other way. The hill could have been a pretty bit of greenery in the mass of urbanization, but they’d decided to plop the dorm right at the peak of the hill like some kind of tower amongst the trees. The upside of this was the building having its own entire parking lot and computer lab. 

The parking lot was in the back, and when Nicky pulled in they were the only car. 

Kevin tumbled out first in the passenger seat, muttering the next line to the song that had been cut off with the engine. Aaron went to hand him the key envelope, but he waved him off. 

“Take it upstairs ahead of us and make sure it works. If we get all the way up there with loads and it doesn’t even work we’re all going to be pissed.” Aaron shrugged and did what he was told. 

Kevin carried two bean bag chairs over his shoulders like some kind of weight lifter, and Nicky sent Andrew a specific kind of glance as he took the other one. Andrew did not respond, grabbing two backpacks by the straps and following the both of them into the front lobby. 

The door was wide open and Aaron was in the bathroom when they got up there, so it definitely seemed like the key had worked just fine. Andrew threw the bags down on the couch and turned on his heel, not caring enough to hear Nicky’s home-sweet-home spiel. 

It didn’t take them that many trips, just because all four of them had the personality of a third grade girl told she was allowed to help carry folding chairs. If the metaphor didn’t stick: they’d grabbed as many things as they could possibly carry, just because they wanted to try to outcarry whoever was next to them also packing their arms full. Not everything in life is a competition, sure, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be. 

Kevin immediately got to work putting clothes in dressers and closets, while Nicky started unscrewing the vent in the kitchenette to hide the alcohol in. Aaron graciously set up Nicky’s Playstation and Andrew and him played some sort of racing game that was probably more than half a decade old. They could set up a bookshelf or something later and call that contribution. 

They heard Matt show up, and Aaron paused the game for a minute to hear if he got into the dorm. There was a distinct amount of muffled conversation going on, which meant Neil was with him. 

Aaron looked over to Andrew, probably to see if he was going to go intercept them in the hallway. When Andrew just shrugged, they started the game up again and ignored the sounds of furniture being dragged down the hall. Matt was a big man, he could carry his couch without extra help. He had Neil, too, which was at least a doorstop with legs. 

And a few other organs, if you asked Nicky. He was not going to ask Nicky. 

Aaron took the disc out when it started to glitch, to go put deodorant on it or whatever method he’d learned from a half second google search. Matt seemed to have finished, because the tumblings and thumpings had seemed to cease. 

There was a single pound on the door a moment later than Andrew had expected it, and because he jumped at it he decided he would not do the honours of opening the door. 

“Nicky, darling, we have company,” he opted to call out instead. 

Nicky came over a minute later, shaking his finger at Andrew exaggeratedly and threw open the door. 

“Matthew, Großer, how have you been? How was the drive?” . Anyone could hear the beam in Nicky’s voice- he missed having people around, people that weren’t like his cousins. People that knew how to be people. 

“It was alright, the coffee got me through, I think. I probably should have just taken Abby’s advice and drove down yesterday and slept on her couch. I have a strongly written google review to make about the Holiday Inn in Richmond, don’t even get me started.” Matt took this moment to laugh dryly, and Nicky didn’t seem to really be trying to relate, since he’d never been to Virginia. “But I made it through, so it wasn’t all that bad.” 

“Do you know when Dan and Renee will get here?” 

“Was about to go pick them up, actually. They land at three, or something, I think.” 

Andrew could have grunted the confirmation at that moment, but he didn’t feel like being forced to join the conversation, so he didn’t. 

“Alright, I’ll let you go then. Drive safely, and pick me up something sweet if you love me.” 

“Ha, ha,” Matt said, sarcastically. “I might, I don’t know. Depends on what I find. Besides, you know Stephanie sent Renee back with something. She always does.” 

Matt left, and not long after Neil apparently appeared, because Nicky was still leaning in the doorway. 

“Hey, stranger. What did you think of Matt?” 

There was a moment of hesitation, and knowing Neil he’d shrugged. Well, not knowing Neil either, Andrew supposed, because they really didn’t. “He’s fine.” 

Nicky laughed. “He is fine!” His voice raised more as it went on, which probably meant Neil hadn’t actually stopped for the conversation. 

Andrew considered the door, finally turning his head to look at the side of Nicky’s face. Nicky turned and raised an eyebrow, and he took that as his cue to stand up.   
He brushed past Nicky in the opposite direction as Neil had gone, and Nicky hummed at him. “What are you up to?” 

Andrew didn’t technically stop, but he did turn around and walk backwards with his arm extended and pointed at Nicky. “You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.” 

“Ah, yes!” Nicky called after him. “Now, Watson, is the moment of fate, where you hear a step on the stair that is walking into your life, and you have to decide if it’s for good or for ill.” His voice was flat but at the same time excited, in the way it always was when Nicky was trying to jokingly quote someone. 

“You messed that up so bad that I won’t even bother to fix it.”

Room 321 was locked, which was a surprise to no one. So Andrew turned back and got the little lockpicking kit he’d bought off amazon years ago, and Nicky was no longer in the doorway when he left the second time. He knew better than to be liable to anything Andrew could possibly be up to. 

The lock popped fairly easy. It wasn’t like it was meant to be any kind of high class mechanics, it was just a college dorm. Andrew didn’t waste any time opening and closing doors and drawers. He knew what he was doing. 

See, when you spend enough time in enough places, you commonly only get about a week to feel people out before it’s too late. You don’t sleep on the first night especially- that’s for snooping around whatever’s in the rooms you can get away with getting into. The morning is good for this, too, especially when you’re in a two story house and you’re in a room on the second floor. You can basically go through everything on the second floor before anyone came up to see how you were doing. 

There isn’t technically anything he was looking for, ever. It’s about the vibe of the place, it’s about how things are put together and where things are hidden and why. It’s about what candy wrappers are in the nightstand and what’s hidden in the second dresser drawer and what boxes are at the bottom of the closet. Of course, it was all a double standard, using it outside of the system, because in the system it was a ploy to get back a slim piece of control over your environment, and using it on his teammates was not going to have that effect because none of them had any power over him and he didn’t have to worry about them. They feared him, even. But Andrew was ignoring the logical side of his brain, because he felt like it. 

And in the bottom drawer of the far dresser was exactly what Andrew had been looking for- that damned duffel bag. 

Andrew could admit to himself that he was curious to see what Neil had on him, what were the necessities of someone like him. Whatever someone like him was. He started with taking the clothes out that were on top, carefully so the tags would stay in the exact way they had been in the bag. Under the clothes were the basics- toothbrush and toothpaste, comb, razor, a box of contacts. (Coloured brown. Interesting.) 

And, most bizarrely, a binder.

It was plain, on the outside, and seemed to be fairly aged. The bottom corner of the front cover was coming apart a little. In the system, they like to hand out these binders called Life Books, full of pages where you can talk about what you know about your birth family and document your homes. Andrew had never really used it, most kids didn’t unless they were the ones that got to have visits with their birth family and fill things out with them in some kind of hope that they’d be allowed to go back with them. Once you become a teenager they stop mentioning the books to you, and most people that aren’t still holding on to things have “lost” them by then. 

Andrew thought, for a moment, that this was a Life Book. They were normally done in an unassuming white binder from Walmart just as this one. 

But when he opened the cover, he couldn’t help but snort and roll his eyes. It was a fan shrine. To Kevin and Riko. Fucking Hell. 

Andrew had never seen something so detailed. It had to have had a printout of every single article with the duo mentioned in it. It was obsessive, and worrisome. 

But what was even more worrisome, was what was between the pages. Wads of cash. Checks with too many digits for Andrew to bother to count. Lines of numbered code that he could only fathom the meaning of. Things that looked like they could be addresses, if you looked at it in a certain way, or maybe just a bit of an ink spill. It was interesting, to say the least. 

Andrew’s eyebrows sunk low, and he began putting everything back in. Right before he was going to zip it back up, he smirked a bit and laid all the tags flat. He just wanted to see how fast Neil would notice, and what the reaction would be. How important this stuff was to him. 

He stole a twizzler from the package on the kitchen counter and left, relocking the door behind him. When he got back into his own room Kevin and Nicky seemed to have taken a break from whatever unpacking they’d been doing, and Nicky talked him into making grilled cheeses for everyone since Aaron always burned them. 

\---

Andrew was sitting on the desk with a cigarette on his lips when Niel came in, and the room seemed to still for an entire moment. Andre took the initiative and flicked the cigarette out of the window immediately, smiling in the way he only ever smiled for people that didn’t live in this room. 

“Try again, Neil. You’re in the wrong room!” 

Aaron paused the game he and Nicky were playing, turning to his cousin. “Wir ließen das verschlossen,” he muttered. ,,We locked that.’’ It wasn’t a question- they knew they had. The game was afoot indeed. 

Nicky paused. “Isch nedd so?” ,,Think so?’’ He sat up a little in his bean bag chair- the fucking bean bag chair- and pulled out his fake polite Southerner voice. “Hey, it sounds like Matt’s back! Met Dan and Renee yet?” 

Neil blinked at them all for a moment, before turning a callous look on Kevin and slurring out something fast. Andrew was pretty sure it was French. They all sat there gaping between Kevin and Neil for another moment before Andrew rolled his eyes and forced himself to do the talking again. 

“Another one of Neil’s many talents! Just how many can one man have?” 

Neil rolled his eyes and said something else to Kevin, and this time he responded lazily. 

They seemed to go back and forth for a few rounds, Kevin passive and Neil aggressive. Then Neil seemed to have said something that Kevin didn’t like, and Kevin blanched. 

Suddenly he shot out of his chair at Neil, and Neil turned on his heel and shut the door behind him. Everyone jumped up at once, just to see what was going on. Andrew hopped off the desk and positioned himself in the middle of the doorway to keep Aaron and Nicky from interfering with whatever altercation was going on. Kevin had Neil thrown against the wall, hands around his neck. 

Matt didn’t follow Andrew’s unspoken rules, so he went straight after Kevin, and it wasn’t like there was anything Andrew could do to stop it. He wrapped an arm around Kevin’s neck from behind and wrenched him backwards away from Neil. 

“Get off him, Day,” Matt snarled in his ear. 

“Woah, woah!” Nicky called out from over Andrew’s shoulder. “Calm down, Matt.” 

Kevin let go of Neil with one hand to drive his elbow into Matt’s rib, but Matt only grunted and tightened his grip. It was no use, really. Matt was well over being stronger than Kevin. All Kevin could do was let go before he got hurt. Matt pulled him back, but in two steps Kevin got free and tried to swing at Matt. Matt deflected and sent him sprawling with a blow. His mother wasn’t a boxer for nothing. 

Andrew decided that this fight was well over lost already, and he stepped between Kevin and Matt ever so casually. His grin was more violent than his hands were at that moment, and he sent Matt a directed look. 

He conceded without a thought, sending a worried look at Neil. Neil, the shit he was, decided the far wall was more interesting than anyone here. 

The girls’ door swung open at that moment finally, and Dan stormed out. She was furious, and surveyed the hallway as she stepped up next to Matt. 

“Are you serious? It’s our first day back. We’re already fighting?” 

“Technically we never left,” Andrew piped in. “We’ve already been around here for the last few weeks, so it’s your first day, not ours.” 

He noticed Renee being hidden behind her in the doorway, and leaned around her to see her. “Oh, hello, Renee. About time!” 

Dan changed her posture to hide Renee again and didn’t give the other woman the chance to answer. “Explanation. Now, Andrew.” 

“Don’t look at me like it’s my fault,” he wagged his finger at her. “Look again, won’t you? Neil came to our room- he brought the fight to us. Dan, your bias is cruel and unprofessional.” 

Dan turned on her heel to survey Neil herself, and seemed to take a moment to take him in. “What’s the problem?” 

“There isn’t one,” he said flatly. When Dan jerked a hand between him and Kevin, he shrugged. “Just a difference in opinions, is all. Nothing that matters.” 

Cryptic as always, the shit. “We’re getting along splendidly,” Andrew offered. “Neil even agreed to ride to the stadium with us.” Andrew would have to watch this one himself, it seemed. No one that had it out for Kevin could be trusted, even if that was most of the people that knew him. 

Dan raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Did he, now?” 

Everyone turned to Neil at that moment, Andrew’s grin not faltering. 

Neil paused for a moment, probably considering which option would be more dangerous. “Yes,” he said finally. “I figured Matt’s truck would be full, so I took them up on their offer.” 

Matt touched her arm when she went to argue, and she reconsidered. She sent Andrew a glare, but just shook her head. “I don’t know who started this, but the fighting stops here and now.” 

“Always the optimist,” Andrew rolled his eyes. With the way Neil seemed to instigate Kevin, there would be no luck of that becoming true any time soon. He gave Neil his little salute. “See you soon. Don’t run off, alright?” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Neil lied. 

Andrew took that as his cue to leave, and let the rest of them decide to follow for themselves. When the door slammed a few minutes later he knew Kevin had joined them, and he wondered curiously just how interesting this year was becoming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! Mwah. If you ever want to talk about Andrew characterization or anything fun, my tumblr name is the same as my ao3 name:) let's talk I'm always up for friends and for reminders that I'm writing something sfdgnds<3


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